Councilwoman Apologizes for Comments About Asians

By VIVIAN S. TOY

Published: May 3, 1996

Minutes after more than 2,000 Asian-Americans rallied outside City Hall to denounce City Councilwoman Julia Harrison for criticizing Asians in her district, the Queens Councilwoman stood before her colleagues in the Council's chamber yesterday and read an apology, saying she never meant to insult immigrants.

A host of public officials, including Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Gov. George E. Pataki, have joined Asian-American leaders in rebuking Ms. Harrison for her published comments, in which she blamed Asians in her Flushing district for increasing crime, pushing up real estate prices and driving out old-timers. At a regularly scheduled meeting yesterday, Ms. Harrison, a Democrat, interrupted the Council's business to read her apology.

My intention for this particular article was not to insult a hard-working and proud community but to speak about the changes in and integration of an entire community," she said. "Those who know me and my record do not perceive me as anti-Asian, racist nor even as a bigot."

Leaders of the Asian American Alliance, which organized yesterday's rally, said they were delighted with Ms. Harrison's response, but noted that she did not say that the remarks were inappropriate.

"At least it shows good faith," said Alfred Lui, the Manhattan coordinator for the alliance and the director of the New York Chinatown Senior Citizens Center. "It shows she has softened her position, and it's an immediate response to the people's demands."

In an article in The New York Times on March 31 about the growing Asian presence in Queens, Ms. Harrison, 75, spoke of Asians as criminal smugglers, rude merchants and illegal aliens who depressed the wages of American-born workers. She noted that many of her elderly white constituents felt increasingly out of place because of the influx of Asian immigrants.

In the article, she was quoted as saying that recent Asian immigrants were unlike previous generations of immigrants from Eastern Europe. "They were more like colonizers than immigrants," she said of Asians. "The money came first. The paupers followed, smuggled in and bilked by their own kind."

She also described the changing ethnicity of Flushing as "very discombobulating, very upsetting," and said, "We all recognize that change is part of life, but it doesn't sit well."

The Asian American Alliance was formed immediately after the article was published, and word of the rally was spread by ads in foreign-language newspapers and flyers distributed in Chinatown and in Asian areas in Brooklyn and Queens.

The crowd that marched to City Hall from nearby Columbus Park included garment and restaurant workers from Chinatown, homemakers from Brooklyn, Korean-American business owners from Queens and a contingent of senior citizens waving American flags and wearing broad-brimmed straw hats to shield their faces from the noonday sun.

"I couldn't bear not to come," said Ying Chan, a Brooklyn garment worker who was joined by about a dozen other workers from her shop. "Our contributions as immigrants are no different than those of other immigrants. It made me very angry to hear that a Councilwoman would say such bigoted things about us."

John Y. Park, president of the Korean-American Association of Mid-Queens, said that Ms. Harrison's comments in the article had motivated more than 40 Asian-American social, religious and business groups to form the alliance.

"She attacked us because we don't have political power," Mr. Park said. "We had to face what she said strongly, because otherwise there will be more Julia Harrisons, and not just in Queens, but in other parts of the city."

Dr. Betty Lee Sung, a former director of Asian studies at City College, said the alliance had contacted dozens of elected officials to garner their support, and more than 30 politicians and community leaders spoke to the crowd yesterday. "We wanted to make a strong showing that officials cannot insult Asian Americans without impunity," she said.

Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington drew rousing applause when he read a statement from Mr. Giuliani that praised the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of Asian immigrants in Flushing.

"The Asian community in Queens, and the entire of city of New York, deserve a complete explanation of the insensitive and insulting comments attributed to Councilwoman Julia Harrison in a recently published interview," Mr. Washington said.

An aide to Governor Pataki, Michele Tong, read a statement from the Governor that went even further: "Derogatory and debasing comments have no place in our society and are especially contemptible from our public officials."

The Speaker of the City Council, Peter F. Vallone, said that while he found Ms. Harrison's comments abhorrent, there was "no precedent or policy for censuring what members say, while there is for what they do." He commended her for making her public apology, which was received with applause from her colleagues.

"Julia has always been outspoken," Mr. Vallone said. "But I think she came to her senses and she finally realized the words had to be repudiated."

Photo: City Councilwoman Julia Harrison, in Flushing in March. (Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)